| / English Dictionary |
TAME
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Flat and uninspiring
Classified under:
Similar:
unexciting (not exciting)
Derivation:
tameness (the quality of being vapid and unsophisticated)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Very docile
Example:
meek as a mouse
Synonyms:
meek; tame
Classified under:
Similar:
docile (willing to be taught or led or supervised or directed)
Derivation:
tameness (the attribute of having been domesticated)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Brought from wildness into a domesticated state
Example:
fields of tame blueberries
Synonyms:
tame; tamed
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
broken; broken in (tamed or trained to obey)
cultivated (no longer in the natural state; developed by human care and for human use)
docile; gentle (easily handled or managed)
domestic; domesticated (converted or adapted to domestic use)
tamed (brought from wildness)
Also:
manipulable; tractable (easily managed (controlled or taught or molded))
Attribute:
domestication; tameness (the attribute of having been domesticated)
Antonym:
wild (in a natural state; not tamed or domesticated or cultivated)
Derivation:
tameness (the attribute of having been domesticated)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Very restrained or quiet
Example:
she was one of the tamest and most abject creatures imaginable with no will or power to act but as directed
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
subdued (quieted and brought under control)
Also:
quiet (characterized by an absence or near absence of agitation or activity)
Antonym:
wild (marked by extreme lack of restraint or control)
II. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they tame ... he / she / it tames
Past simple: tamed
Past participle: tamed
-ing form: taming
Sense 1
Meaning:
Correct by punishment or discipline
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "tame" is one way to...):
alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Sense 2
Meaning:
Make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans
Example:
The wolf was tamed and evolved into the house dog
Synonyms:
domesticate; tame
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "tame" is one way to...):
accommodate; adapt (make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose)
Verb group:
domesticate; domesticise; domesticize; reclaim; tame (overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable)
Domain category:
animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 3
Meaning:
Overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable
Example:
reclaim falcons
Synonyms:
domesticate; domesticise; domesticize; reclaim; tame
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "tame" is one way to...):
alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)
Verb group:
domesticate; tame (make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans)
Domain category:
animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tame"):
break; break in (make submissive, obedient, or useful)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
tamable; tameable (capable of being tamed)
tamer (an animal trainer who tames wild animals)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment
Example:
tame the soil
Synonyms:
cultivate; domesticate; naturalise; naturalize; tame
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "tame" is one way to...):
accommodate; adapt (make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose)
Domain category:
flora; plant; plant life ((botany) a living organism lacking the power of locomotion)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 5
Meaning:
Make less strong or intense; soften
Example:
The author finally tamed some of his potentially offensive statements
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "tame" is one way to...):
alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Context examples:
Were we among the tamer scenes of nature I might fear to encounter your unbelief, perhaps your ridicule; but many things will appear possible in these wild and mysterious regions which would provoke the laughter of those unacquainted with the ever-varied powers of nature; nor can I doubt but that my tale conveys in its series internal evidence of the truth of the events of which it is composed.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
It now began to be known and talked of in the neighbourhood, that my master had found a strange animal in the field, about the bigness of a splacnuck, but exactly shaped in every part like a human creature; which it likewise imitated in all its actions; seemed to speak in a little language of its own, had already learned several words of theirs, went erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the finest limbs in the world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman’s daughter of three years old.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Since we had learned that the huge iguanodons were kept as tame herds by their owners, and were simply walking meat-stores, we had conceived that man, even with his primitive weapons, had established his ascendancy upon the plateau.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“It is an old bowyer's rede that the second feather of a fenny goose is better than the pinion of a tame one. Draw on old lad, for I have come between you and the clout.”
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
No want of understrappers: my sister desires her love, and hopes to be admitted into the company, and will be happy to take the part of any old duenna or tame confidante, that you may not like to do yourselves.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
"It's a wolf and there's no taming it," Weedon Scott announced.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
His means of taming is simple, for already the spiders have diminished.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
His features were regular, but too relaxed: his eye was large and well cut, but the life looking out of it was a tame, vacant life—at least so I thought.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
"I confess," replied Elinor, "that while I am at Barton Park, I never think of tame and quiet children with any abhorrence."
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Only a rough sketch of Laurie taming a horse.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
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